These Indo-European people gradually abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and settled down as farmers and cattle herders. One group—the Persians— stayed on the plateau; another group— the Indians—moved on to a region on the Indian subcontinent between the Indus and Ganges rivers. Around 700 BCE, a number of tribes on the plateau attempted to form a kingdom. These people were the Medes. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, the first Median king was Deioces. Although the accuracy of this account is not certain, it seems that Deioces established a capital for the new kingdom at Ekbatana (present-day Hamadan).
A later Median king, Phraortes, ruled from around 675 to 653 BCE. Leading an army of Median tribes, all carrying only a long spear and a wicker shield, Phraortes braved the might of the Assyrians, meeting them in a battle in 653 BCE. However, the Medes were defeated and Phraortes was slain. He was succeeded by his son Cyaxares, who modernized the army and added bows and arrows to its arsenal of weapons. Cyaxares succeeded in banishing a northern nomadic people known as the Scythians, who had invaded Median territory in his father’s reign, and in 612 BCE, with the help of the Babylonians, Cyaxares captured Nineveh, the Assyrian capital. The city was thoroughly destroyed and never rebuilt. The loss of Nineveh marked the beginning of the downfall of the Assyrian Empire.
This relief from around the sixth century BCE depicts two sphinxes, animals that are commonly seen in art from the Persian Empire.
The last Median king was Astyages, son of Cyaxares. Astyages inherited a large kingdom from his father, including the vassal kingdoms of the Persians. Despite his long reign from 585 to 550 BCE, Astyages, preferring a life of luxury, did little to consolidate his empire. He did, however, marry his daughter to the Persian king, Cambyses I. In 559 BCE, that couple’s son became the Persian vassal king Cyrus II.
World History
